


Letters for the Dead

by lshsoftbot



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Afterlife, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bittersweet Ending, Closure, Comfort/Angst, Death, Eventual Happy Ending, Goodbyes, Healing, Heaven, King Lucas, Letters, Love Letters, M/M, Mental Instability, Prince Mark, Princes, Sad, Sad with a Happy Ending, Time Skips, goodbye letter, kings - Freeform, letters to the dead, time heals every wound
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2019-11-08 00:27:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17970965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lshsoftbot/pseuds/lshsoftbot
Summary: King Lucas, traumatized by the death of his love, resorts to writing letters to his lost prince as a means of coping with his cruel reality.





	1. Letters of Regret

Dear Mark,

A man on a horse with a sword and a shield.

A man, lying on his back, with blood pouring out of his mouth.

That’s what you’ve reduced everyone and everything to.

Council's a mess but I'm even more so, I can only imagine the chaos that's going down in the villages. You were always their favorite. Prince Mark who always took a stroll to the town square on the weekends. The same person who brought bread during the times of famine and clothes during the harshest winter.

Well, good job.

Because now they're stuck with me: King Lucas, the one behind the very battle that took their precious Prince Mark away from them.

It's toxic, I know. And I remember just how much you hated it when I had those episodes. Believe me, I tried talking to someone about it, but it's useless. The castle pities me, the villagers hate me, Jisung tears up every time I bring up your name, and, _perhaps the thing that infuriates me the most_ , Kun won't stop telling me how you died a noble death on the battlefield.

I know he's trying to make me feel better but there's nothing noble about your death. You've reduced this world to nothing by relieving yourself from it. Do you know how badly I want to reach just behind the veil and take your _glory_ away from you? All I could think about is how I could've changed everything if I had convinced you to wait at the castle instead.

You spent so long teaching me to love, but now, all I feel is hate, anger, and regret.

I hate this world for taking you away, I hate our home for reminding me of you, but, above all, I hate you for leaving without a goodbye.

Lucas.


	2. Letters of Hatred

Dear Mark,

We buried you today, the spot at church that you've always loved. So many people came to pay you respect one last time. Who could blame them? You looked so beautiful. You always were.

Right up to the day you left the world.

It pains me knowing that I will never see your beautiful smile, the way your eyes passionately express your every complex emotion, and the way you would not never stop talking about how you can fold your ears up.

Mark, you’ve caused me so much pain. You were the only source to my happiness, did you know that?

How could I love you when you're the one that took away the only thing in this world that made me happy? How could I not hate you when you've condemned me to a life of eternal suffering?

I want to love you and celebrate you for everything that you have done for the country, but I can’t.

Because you’re selfish, Mark; I hate you.

Lucas.


	3. Letters of Resentment

Dear Mark,

The church reached out to me today.

They wanted to know how I would like for you to be remembered, but I couldn't answer them. My mind went completely blank because truthfully, I don't want to remember you. I want to forget you completely and erase you from my history. Having you around like this hurts and now they want me to give them permission to create something solid to haunt me?

How could I sponsor a sculptor to create a statue in your loving memory when I keep finding myself wishing that I hadn't fallen in love with you at all? Every night, I unwillingly lay awake, wishing that I could somehow change our history so that you'd never step foot in my life.

You can laugh and tease me all you want.

It's bizarre, isn't it? To refuse to pay my prince respect after his noble death?

But you don't understand what it's like to live every day knowing that _I_ had caused it.

Would you still be able to laugh had the roles been switched? That I was the dead prince that the whole country loved and you, the King who had allowed for me to fight not knowing that it would subsequently kill me? Why don't we do that now and you could take your sweet time to explore that timeline?

Go ahead, take this fate away from me and live it as you please. Do us both a favor and switch me out for you because I can't take this anymore. This whole business is slowly killing me and I can't find the strength to keep going anymore.

I want to die, Mark. It's tiring not having you here nagging me to visit the villagers more, to read through the royal decrees more thoroughly before publishing them, and to be more kind to Jisung and Kun. It's too different, I can't cope. I don't know how to and I'm not sure if I want to.

But you don't want to hear that.

Nobody does. No one ever wants to hear that they've caused someone else immense pain and suffering.

So, here I lay what you want to hear: your statue has been scheduled to begin construction tomorrow and I hope you're happy about it. 

Lucas.

 


	4. Letters of Healing

Dear Mark,

I won’t be able to write to you for a while. Doctor’s order. He’s kind of an ass.

Lucas.

 


	5. Letters of Progress

Dear Mark,

It's been a while. Maybe four to five months since? I didn't mean to leave for so long. Truthfully, I'm writing this in secret as I was instructed by the new doctor that Kun had hired to not write to you anymore. He says it's the reason why I'm still feeling unbearably drained even after so long. I know, you don't have to nag me. I know what I'm doing might ruin the progress that I had made for the past few months but I guess I just came back because I wanted to tell you that the church had finished building your statue a few nights ago. I got to see it and I'm so thankful that I had commissioned it a few months back.

You deserve it, Mark. You really do. You deserve to be remembered as the person that you were. For everything that you had done for this country and the people who resided on its land. I'm only sorry that you had to leave this world so early. Maybe the people up in heaven were jealous that we got to have you. I don't know. I try not to ponder too much on the theories. Donghyuck says it's a bad habit to get into, but that's what he says about everything I do.

He's a bit strict with the rules, but I guess I would be lying if I said that his methods don't help.

I think you would have really liked him if you ever met Donghyuck, he's a lot like you. He has the pragmatic mind of yours that have the answers to everything. Every possible question in the world.

He's really helping me with everything and the best part is, he listens. He doesn't turn away, cry, or tell me that you died a noble death. He just listens. Sometimes I'll talk for hours and he won't say a word. The strangest part is that I don't mind it. Maybe all I needed was someone to listen. I'm not entirely sure.

I'm sorry, I don't know what to write anymore. My mind went completely blank and all I could think of was how sorry and ashamed of myself I felt about the letters that I had written just few months ago. It wasn't your fault, Mark. It never was. I don't know what came over me that made me decide that it was you who wanted to curse me with a cast of eternal sadness. You're not that kind of person.

I don't know why I had written all of that. I hope you know that I never meant to hurt you any way.

I hope you can still find it within you to forgive me for everything that I had written, every thought that had crossed my mind, and everything that I had done.

I miss you so very much. Every second of the day.

 _Love_ ,

Lucas.


	6. Letters of Closure

Dear Mark,

Donghyuck, the doctor from my last letter, and I are getting married. I guess there's really nothing that you could possibly do about it, but I just wanted you to know and thank you in the process.

For everything.

Thank you for loving me even up to the moment you were taking your last breath. I don't deserve it, but you gave it all to my anyway and I'm incredibly grateful. Thank you for forgiving me, even in your afterlife. I've done so much and have given you so many reason to hate me, yet I still feel you watching over me, protecting me. Thank you for not turning the other cheek when we had first been engaged. I guess it's just in your nature to love people unconditionally regardless of their flaws, but I still felt the need to thank you because it means a lot to me to know you're constantly by my side.

Thank you for being in my life, Mark Lee. I don't deserve it, I never did. Not in this life or in death. But somehow, I know that you'll be there for me even then and I'm incredibly grateful. You have no idea how much you mean to me.

I don't know how heaven works, but I hope you have familiar faces to be there for you always. Don't wait for me, go do the things that make you happy. I'll catch up to you later, I promise.

I love you now, in death, and forever.

Love,

Lucas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ✎ find me on twitter!


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